Ruth and the sunset at the island of Dhiffushi, Maldives.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Puppies - and then there were six!

At the time I wrote yesterday morning's post, there were two new born puppies living under our motorhome.  As the morning progressed, the number of puppies steadily grew.

I watched the last one being born at 12:30pm. And then there were six!

I've never seen the whole procedure, so didn't know how long it took, and how the mother looked after them. So it was an interesting day watching nature take it's course.

But that didn't mean we didn't get some work done too!

Kevin, getting ready to scrub the roof.

Should be done every three months!

And of course with the rain and humidity here during the summer months, it should have been done before now. I got the front half done, and that was the worst of it. I'll finish the rest up another day this week.

Meanwhile, there was also activity going on under the motorhome!

By mid morning, there were four.

But then around noon, I was sitting on the lounge chair reading, and I had a good view of the activity under the motorhome from there. Missy was just lying there, and the pups were feeding when all of a sudden she got up, nudged the pups into a pile, and went and lay down a foot and a half away. All of a sudden, I watched a new puppy arrive! It happened so quickly! This one was a little bloody looking, and I figured it had to be the last one. I called Ruth outside, and we watched how she handled the situation.



The puppies in the nest. Here there are five!

And here's Missy with number six, only a minute or so old.

She picked it up, and hard enough to make it squeal. We were a little worried for a second, but she set it down and cleaned it up. She then stayed away from the other puppies for most of the afternoon and fed just the one. It was kind of odd.

She temporarily put the newest one with the others, but somehow it made it's way back to her.

She left the others alone most of the afternoon.

What do they say? Three days before they open their eyes?

Just before dinner, she went and lay down and fed the rest of them. Everything seems fine this morning, and mom and babies are doing fine.

By the way, some of you might think that this is just a stray Mexican dog, but that's not the case. She's lived pretty much her whole life here at Rancho Altarose RV Park, and she's well fed and well looked after. But, she's an outdoor dog and this is where she chose to have her pups, so this is where she can stay for the time being. I guess we're staying put for another week or so!

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14 comments:

  1. Awe, those puppies are too cute :)

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  2. Glad they are doing well...the last one might be the runt? hence why she put more 'time' into that one? At least 7-10 days before their eyes and ears open :)....glad they are all doing well...

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    1. We thought the same thing about it being the runt of the littler. Hard to tell though, it doesn't really look any smaller. I sort of thought that it was more than 3 days before they opened their eyes.

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  3. Perhaps you or the residents of Rancho Altarose RV Park can take up collection to get her spayed. Dogs and cats that are not spayed and neutered are much more prone to cancers (google for this fact) plus having more puppies running around not altered is not good.

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    1. Missy is not at stray. The owners of the ranch have up until now done a great job of making sure that she got a shot before going into heat for over 7 or 8 years without her ever getting pregnant, up until now. They are good owners and if it is their decision to not have her fixed for whatever their reasons are it isn't up to us to tell them otherwise. These are not Mexicans, by the way.

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  4. Cute! Hope you don't get too attached and find one as a new traveling companion (although that's not a bad thing!). :c)

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    1. Yep, they sure are cute! And, yes it will be hard not to get attached to them but we know that a dog/puppy is not in our future, at least not at this time.

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  5. Please keep food and water near her as she can become malnourished very quickly. Hopefully you can find her shelter when it is time for her to move out from under Sherman.

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    1. No worries there, she is getting food and water. Garry has a shed that we will be able to move the mom and puppies to once we decide when it is time for us to leave. Hopefully she will be happy there, right now she is very content where she is so we will just let her be.

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  6. What an experience! We had a robin build her nest in the wheel well once and had to wait until the babies fledged before we could leave... but so far... no puppies. But aren't they cute!

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    1. This is a first for us! We feel very honoured that she felt so safe with us as to have them under Sherman. I guess she thought with a name like Sherman that she would be "well protected'!

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  7. Replies
    1. It's not up to us Chris, check my reply to KL.

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